


Another Way to Get to Know You

by gamerfic



Series: In Sleep [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Dreamsharing, F/M, Fade Sex, Fade Tongue, Light Dom/sub, Lucid Dreaming, Oral Sex, POV First Person, Sexual Roleplay, The Fade, Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts, dominant Lavellan, the Lady Inquisitor and her elven serving man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-20 06:50:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3640770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gamerfic/pseuds/gamerfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events at the Winter Palace, Lavellan has a lot on her mind. She seeks out Solas in the Fade to start figuring it all out - starting with what she thinks of the way that he was introduced at the ball.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Way to Get to Know You

The elven chambermaid retreated from the guest suite, bowing deeply and bidding me good night in unnecessarily flowery language. The door clicked shut behind her, and I was finally alone for the first time in hours. Even after exposing Grand Duchess Florianne's duplicity before the entire court, even after everything I had done to ensure that the new balance of power in Orlais benefited the Inquisition to the greatest extent possible, my work had not been finished. It seemed that every minor noble, military officer, courtier, and hanger-on in Halamshiral had wanted a moment of my time now that the Inquisition was ascendant. There could be no escape until all of them had their chance to speak to me, not with Josephine's watchful gaze wordlessly reminding me of the influence we still stood to gain from new alliances.

With an exhausted sigh, I collapsed onto the bed and sank into its yielding mattress. I stared up into its ornately embroidered canopy, thinking of nothing and everything, until I concluded, _If I don't get out of these ridiculous clothes,_ _I'll fall asleep like this and feel even worse in the morning._ I sat up and kicked my boots off of my aching feet. My stiff fingers fumbled with the fastenings of my coat, and I winced as its fabric scraped painfully against every cut and bruise I had sustained in the night's battles. After carelessly discarding my clothing in piles on the floor, I staggered around my borrowed bedchamber extinguishing the lamps and candles until thick, welcome darkness covered everything. Then I burrowed under the bed's silken covers and fell asleep the instant that my head hit the pillows.

Yet even in sleep, my work was not done. Briefly, I lost myself in complex, fragmented dreams of courtly gossip and veiled threats and political maneuvers, but amidst them all a single thought surfaced: _I need to find Solas._ The memory of him was enough to help me recall that I was in the Fade, regain my focus, and concentrate until I sensed the bright beacon of his spirit in the solitary room far from me where he slept. He alone called out to me through all the other dreams that cluttered the Winter Palace. I fixed my will upon that steady light and let myself be drawn toward it, sailing past the fears and anxieties and lusts and hopes of other dreamers until I came to an abrupt stop at the borders of his mind.

I found myself before a massive set of heavy double doors, inset with a mosaic of dark tiles that depicted a confusing jumble of dragons and wolves and inexplicably familiar beings that were not quite elves. I raised my hand and knocked. _Solas, I'm here. Please let me in._ By way of response, the doors swung open, and I only hesitated for a moment before I stepped across the threshold and into Solas's dream.

He stood, barefoot and dressed in loose grey robes, in the center of a room made out of translucent white crystal. The trunks and branches of massive trees made arches and columns around its edges and twined together overhead to form a ceiling like a forest canopy, with every leaf frozen at the peak of its most vibrant autumn colors. It seemed as if the trees and the crystal had grown together, shaping and molding one another in turn. The entire wall behind him was transparent, and through it I saw crystals the size of mountains floating amidst a starry sky, each one twinkling with the lights of enormous and distant cities. "Is this what you saw when you dreamed of Arlathan?" I asked in amazement.

Solas hurried over to me, looking shocked. "How did you get here?"

"I...flew? Sort of? I wanted to find you, and suddenly your dream was right there in front of me."

"You should not have been able to do that."

I couldn't tell whether he was angry with me. "Have I done something wrong? I'll go back to my own dreams if you prefer. It's only...I've been thinking about you all day, Solas. I wanted to be with you tonight, one way or another."

Something in that admission appeared to put him at ease. "I've been thinking of you as well."

"Then will you let me stay? The alternative to dreaming together is to sneak around the palace trying to find each other - and that hardly seems like the safer option."

Solas nodded. _"Andaran atish'an,"_ he said, a bit stiffly. "I did not mean to alarm you _._ I was only worried for you when I realized what you'd done. You travel through the Fade on instinct, with no training, and there are many unfriendly spirits lingering around Halamshiral. You might have come to serious harm."

"But I didn't. And we're behind your wards now, aren't we?"

"We are. You will be safe here. If you would allow it, at a later time I would like to observe the way you navigate through dreams. I might be able to teach you ways to protect yourself once I understand more about how you walk the Fade. I wonder whether your abilities are solely the consequence of the Anchor you bear, or if your aptitude for lucid dreaming predated it and you simply never had cause to explore it before. I theorize that it may be a combination of-"

Before he could say another word, I gathered him into my arms and kissed him fiercely, pushing my body against his until his head thumped softly against the door frame. I broke away with a gasp and said in a low voice, "I didn't come here to talk to you about the Fade."

"Yes," he said, drawing in a deep breath, "yes, I suppose that's fair."

I looked around the room and located the bed that he had dreamed - which, I was intrigued to note, closely resembled the one in my quarters at Skyhold. As I took him by the hand and pulled him toward it, I noticed my own clothing for the first time: a long, flowing green dress with a corseted top that laced tightly up my back. _Not necessarily what I would have chosen for myself, but now I know what Solas likes._ "First things first," I said, and sat down on the edge of the bed. "I'm going to need some help getting out of this dress."

"With pleasure." I had expected Solas to make my clothing melt away with a gesture, as he had done in other dreams we had shared - but instead he sat down behind me and began to loosen the laces of the dress with deft and gentle fingers. _All right, we're taking our time, then._ I tried to let myself be soothed by his slow, meditative work, but I couldn't entirely banish the night's events from my thoughts. "You're very tense," he observed. His hands slid up my sides and began to knead my neck, my shoulders, the knotted-up muscles of my sword arm.

Little by little, I relaxed under his persistent touch and let out a satisfied sigh. "That feels wonderful. _Ma serannas._ I needed this."

Some of my frustration must have come through in my words, because he said, "You didn't enjoy the ball." A statement, not a question.

"Not especially, no. Even if I shared your passion for frilly cakes and political intrigue, the number of people who were trying to kill us would still have put a damper on my enthusiasm."

"People tend to try to kill us everywhere we go, _vhenan_. At least this time, in between battles, my glass was never empty and I could appreciate the Grand Game being played around me."

"I can handle battle. The Grand Game, not so much." I shook my head in disgust and felt some of the tension returning to my body. "They speak so much and say so little, and half of what they do say is some sort of veiled insult. I don't know how any of them stand it."

"Yet, as you yourself just said, all of that is only words."

"But is it?" Although I had intended to put the ball out of my mind and avoid dwelling on it any longer, Solas had reminded me of too much, and my anger flared up without warning. "Those _shemlen_ only started treating me like anything other than a savage Dalish invader after they discovered what the Inquisition could do for them. They didn't only act that way to me, either. Did you hear the way the herald announced you to the Empress? 'The Lady Inquisitor's elven serving man.' If I'd known in advance that he would be so disrespectful, I would have-"

" _Vhenan_. It doesn't matter." Solas pressed a kiss into the place where my neck met my shoulder, and a shiver ran through me. "I assure you that I did not take offense. In fact, I found it helpful to be overlooked. Had the courtiers treated me as something other than a servant, I would not have had the freedom to see what I saw and to help you as I did."

"I know. It's only..." My words trailed off. His lack of reaction had cooled my rage and left me with only a faint, bemused sadness. "I wish they could understand that's not what you are to me," I finally said.

His fingers had resumed untying the knots in the lacing of my dress. "Not your serving man, you mean? Could it not be said that I am serving you right now?"

"That's not the same thing and you know it."

"Certainly. It is not as if you compel me to obey you as the Inquisition will now compel Celene, Briala, and Gaspard. And I should hope you do not plan to welcome the entire nation of Orlais into your bedchamber or your dreams. Yet all the same, I am here to aid you of my own free will, and there is no shame in service freely given."

"But as an advisor and an ally, Solas, not as a servant. So I have a fancy _shemlen_ title and you don't. You're still my equal."

"The fact that you can presume such a thing, _ma sa'lath_ , proves your authority more than you can possibly know." I could hear him smiling as he spoke.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Only that the equality that is self-evident to you is not nearly so clear to those outside the Inquisition." There was something more that remained unsaid underneath those words, but he continued before I could ask him to clarify. "Most people see only your title of Inquisitor, and assume that those who fight beside you are subordinate to that title. It is perhaps easier for you to forget this than it is for those of us who are assumed to be your inferiors. But as I said before, such misconceptions can be useful to cultivate. I am willing to be seen as only your elven serving man if it means that our enemies underestimate us in the end."

I paused to consider his words, then said, "You're right. I didn't look at it that way. And if you and I know the truth, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. But at the time, I could only view it an insult, the way the herald said it."

"Then allow me to give you the opportunity to consider the situation anew." He lowered his voice to an intense whisper, and his lips brushed my ear. "I enjoy being in the presence of power whether or not I am the one who wields it. Whatever your opinions on the Grand Game, the skill with which you played it was intoxicating. If you please, I would see that dominance loosed again. And so, Lady Inquisitor, tonight I am yours to command."

I stood up and turned to face him. The unlaced dress slid down my body to pool on the floor at my feet. I wore nothing underneath it - _oh, Solas, that's very sly of you,_ I thought. This dream was a game of his own - more personal and played for smaller stakes than the Grand Game itself, but no less a calculated attempt to get what he wanted from me. _Or to give me what he wants to give me._ "Mine to command," I said slowly back to him.

Solas looked up at me and took in every inch of my body with avid, thirsty eyes. "Yes, Lady Inquisitor. I have always been in your power."

I hesitated for only a moment before I resolved to see where all of this led. "Kiss me," I said, feeling mildly ridiculous and hoping it didn't show through in the firm, imperious tone I adopted.

 _"Ma nuvenin,"_ he replied, and the depths of meaning with which he imbued that simple phrase I'd heard so many times before made me go suddenly weak at the knees. He rose, embraced me, and covered my mouth with his, and for a long time I lost myself in the interplay of our lips and tongues and teeth. I waited for him to move beyond kissing and was surprised when he did not, despite the arousal I could plainly feel through the robes he still wore. _He's waiting for me to tell him what to do next,_ I realized, and an unexpected thrill ran through me along with the knowledge that I was now the sole arbiter of his self-control.

When his hands slid below my waist to pull my hips against his, I saw my opportunity. I broke the kiss and nipped lightly at his ear. "I don't recall asking you to touch me like that."

Solas dropped his gaze to the floor in an attempt at looking suitably chastised that was spoiled by the smirk he couldn't entirely disguise. " _Ir abelas_ , Lady Inquisitor. I forget myself. I await your orders. Unless you now must punish me?"

"That won't be necessary." I leaned in closer. "What I need is your mouth on me."

"With great pleasure, Lady Inquisitor," he said, and I sucked in a breath as his lips skimmed my collarbone. I seized his hand and guided him to his knees as I sank down onto the edge of the bed. He kissed my neck, my breasts, my belly, the insides of my thighs - everywhere except that single aching, wet place that most desired his attention.

When I could bear it no longer, I reached for him and tilted his chin upward, making him meet my eyes as he knelt at my feet. I could feel him trembling when I touched him. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Following your orders to the letter, Lady Inquisitor. Is there another need I might attend to?"

 _He's going to make me spell it out for him._ By way of response, I pressed his face between my legs and murmured, "Here." He bent immediately to his work and I fell back onto the mattress, clutching at the sheets and rolling my hips against his mouth. As I steadily, inexorably approached the brink, I managed to gasp out, "Your fingers, please," then moaned as he slid them inside me.

It didn't take long after that for him to finish me. He must have known it had happened, and yet he continued to move his hand and mouth until I gently pushed him away. "Solas, enough, _ar lath ma,_ come here," I babbled.

Solas crawled up onto the bed and sat next to me, his body barely making contact with mine. He was still fully clothed, shaking with the need to touch me again. "Will that be all, Lady Inquisitor?" he said with obvious effort.

"For the love of all the gods, of course it won't be. Now take off all your clothes and lie down," I said, breathlessly. He disrobed with great haste and was soon lying supine before me with his chest rising and falling rapidly, unable to turn his gaze from mine. For long moments I marveled at how thoroughly I had undone him, until I finally gave in to the urge to straddle him and lower myself down onto him.

We both cried out softly as our bodies found a steady rhythm together. Eager as he was, I expected this part of our game to end quickly - yet he seemed determined to prolong it. He lifted one hand and stroked me at the place where our bodies were joined. His eyes were closed, his brows knitted together in fervent concentration. The look on his face and the rapid motion of his fingers were more than I could take, and my second climax took me entirely by surprise.

Gradually my movements slowed and I slumped down on top of him as he held himself perfectly still beneath me. I kissed him and tasted myself on his lips. " _Vhenan_ \- I mean, Lady Inquisitor," he said between ragged, shuddering inhalations, "by your leave, if I may please-"

"Yes, always," I blurted out before he could reach the end of his sentence. His hips jerked upward in rapid, wholly instinctual thrusts and he let out a strangled groan as he finished.

I didn't know how long we remained interlocked before I kissed his ear and whispered _"Ar lath ma"_ again as I cautiously disentangled myself from him. He repeated the same words to me and took me in his arms, my back to his chest. I was now facing the huge clear wall I'd seen when I first entered his dream, and I stared out at the infinite dark sky dotted with shining, impossible cities. My mind was as calm and empty as the night, pulsing with a clarity I hadn't felt since before we arrived at Halamshiral. _We can do anything we want here in the Fade_. _We can be anyone we want to be no matter who and what we are when we're awake. No wonder Solas spends so much time here - it's the only place anyone is entirely free._ A mixture of astonishment and sadness surged through me with the vastness of that realization - _gods, I could live a thousand years and scarcely scratch the surface of what is possible here._

A kiss on the nape of my neck interrupted my contemplations. "And you tell me I think too much, _ma vhenan_ ," Solas said with a chuckle.

I didn't know how to even begin to explain it all, so I grasped for the first thought I could put into words. "There are just so many things we haven't done yet."

"I understand. I hope we will have time to share them all."

"So do I."

His fingers traced lazy circles on my arm. "Then I trust you found this experience enjoyable?"

"Creators, yes. I feel so much better now." _Like I have a say in what happens to me again. Like there's more to this world, to this life, than a bunch of small-minded nobles squatting in their stolen city._ " _Ma serannas_ for trusting me, Solas. For letting me in when I knocked."

His only response was a soft hum low in his throat. Neither of us spoke for a while until abruptly he said, "There is something I must tell you."

" _Dirth ma_ , then."

"When the representatives of the Inquisition were presented at the ball, do you remember how the herald announced Sera?"

"Lady Mai Balsych of Kourse." I couldn't help smirking at the memory. "Childish, but amusing. Why bring it up now?"

"Do you think that any self-respecting Orlesian herald would come up with such a vulgar jest on his own? Or do you think he only read the name and title that he was given?"

Understanding dawned on me and I twisted around in his arms to face him. I wasn't sure whether to shove him off the bed, or to burst out laughing, or to do both. "You wrote your own introduction," I said. "You _wanted_ everyone there to think you were just my servant."

Solas gave a single nod. "I already told you there are advantages to being overlooked."

"You might have mentioned that before I worked myself into a frenzy over something you intended to happen all along, you know."

"I do - and _ir abelas_ for it _._ You are right - I should have explained myself sooner, but I was distracted by the passion you showed on my behalf. It is...attractive, _ma vhenan._ "

"Apology accepted." I slipped my hand behind his neck and pulled him into another kiss, and felt a devious smile spreading across my face. When we broke apart, I said in a light and only partially teasing tone, "Even so, I hardly think that withholding information from the Inquisitor is behavior that would befit her faithful manservant."

Solas dipped his head in submission, but his eyes never left mine and I saw renewed desire kindling in their depths. "Truly, my lapse in judgment was inexcusable," he said. "I'm sure you can come up with a suitable way for me to make amends to you, my Lady Inquisitor."

And I did.

**Author's Note:**

> Story title taken from the song "Wolf Like Me" by TV on the Radio, though I wrote this while listening to [Lera Lynn's cover version.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwVX4cG6F9s)
> 
> Also, if you're enjoying this series, you might be interested in [Cards in the Hand](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3571181), a story I recently posted that takes place within this same continuity but is written from Solas's POV. Thanks to everyone who's read these stories and left me such wonderful feedback!


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